Some time ago Microsoft’s Windows 8 team blogged about the decision to ‘ribbonize’ the Windows Explorer file manager. So there are lots of questions about how Windows 8 user interface will look like.

Windows President Steven Sinofsky attempted to answer those questions about Microsoft’s plans for the coming Windows 8 user interface in a new blog post on the Building Windows 8 blog.

Sinofsky repeated what officials said in June when they first showed off the Windows 8 UI: Microsoft is planning to offer Windows 8 users a choice. They’ll be able to use a tile-based interface optimized for touch that looks like the “Metro”-centric UI on Windows Phone 7. Or they’ll have the option of switching to a more classic Windows desktop experience that is navigable using keyboards, mice and trackpads. Both modes will be available to users on both tablets and PCs, Microsoft officials said earlier this year.

But it still not clear, even after Sinofsky’s post today, if the Ribbon interface, introduced by Microsoft in Office, will be part of the new default desktop look-and-feel in Windows 8 beyond the Windows Explorer.

Sinofsky never actually called out this week’s Ribbon confusion in his new blog post. Instead, he went deeper into what he and other Microsoft execs showed off in June this year when they first publicly showed off the Windows 8 UI.

Microsoft officials have said that HTML5 and JavaScript will be key to developing new, “Metro style” apps. What’s still not known for certain is what Microsoft is going to say regarding how .Net, Silverlight, XNA and other existing Microsoft developer platforms and technologies fit into the Windows 8 picture.

Some at Microsoft have been working on ways to keep the existing tools and technologies relevant. But Microsoft’s top executives has avoided saying anything official about how the existing technologies will play in the Windows 8 world — beyond Sinofsky’s passing reference today to the fact that “existing apps, devices and tools all remain and are improved in Windows 8.”